Friends to Follow

COCHRAN — Bleckley County swept a pair of games from Southeast Bulloch Saturday to advance to the championship round of the Region 3-AA softball tournament. It took four innings in game one's 12-0 win, as SEB's Lauren Crosby and Effie Manahan were the only Jackets to hit safely. Manahan drove in Ansley Rushing for the lone run in game two's 9-1 loss. Southeast will return to action Wednesday against the loser of Monday's Screven County/Dodge County game. The winner of the three-game series will be awarded the No. 3 seed in the GHSA Class AA state playoffs.

No. 25 UNCG tops Lady Eagles GREENSBORO, N.C. — The Georgia Southern women’s soccer team fell 5-1 Friday night at No. 25 UNC Greensboro. Lindsay Hammer (Evans, Ga.) scored her first goal of the season as time expired in the second half to prevent the shutout. The freshman got loose at the top of the box and put the ball past Spartans goalkeeper Alex Perry. Alex Murphy (Cincinnati, Ohio) was credited with the assist.

With the loss, the Eagles fell to 4-6-0 overall, 1-2-0 in the Southern Conference, while UNCG improved to 8-1-1 overall, 3-0-0 in the SoCon.

Cat Barneko scored twice in the first half, giving UNC Greensboro a 2-0 lead at halftime. She put the Spartans on the board in the 11th minute, and scored her second goal of the season in the 28th minute.

Twelve minutes into the second half, the Spartans struck again with a goal by Kristen Schmidbauer. Lauren Lover pushed the scored to 4-0 in the 79th minute, and Tabitha Padgett capped off the scoring for the Spartans with a goal in the 89th minute.

Katie Merson (Albuquerque, N.M.) played the full game in goal for the Eagles, recording five saves. Kelsey Kearney made two saves for the Spartans before being relieved by Perry in the 72nd minute.

The Eagles will continue the road trip on Sunday, Oct. 3 against Elon at 2 p.m. in Burlington, N.C.

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